


Vanice Bowregard III

by HiyaDude



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Bisexual Inquisitor (Dragon Age), Colemance, F/M, Murder hobo turned inquisitor, Non-submissive inquisitor, Not Beta Read, Romance, Self-Indulgent, Why are there so little colemance bitches?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:02:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26325340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiyaDude/pseuds/HiyaDude
Summary: Vanice is not one to stay in one place for too long. However, upon waking up to a green mark on her hand, and a place where the world will go to shit without her help, she has found that there aren't many options. She's done this time and time again, but now she doesn't have the option of just leaving and it irks her.Then there's Cole. Quite honestly, its love at first sight, but wrangling a spirit into a relationship is harder than one would think.
Relationships: Cole/Inquisitor (Dragon Age), Cole/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Eyyyy, so here i am again. So I've decided to post a fic I've been writing literally since highschool. Like, mostly in snippets at 3 am when i'm half coherent. Hopefully that doesnt translate through lol. Vanice is my murder hobo skyrim character that I managed to max out pickpocketing and stealth on because I really could not help myself. Literally used to hoard gems because I thought they were worth more than vendors were trying to buy them for. This is mostly for fun and to add more to the cole/inquisitor tag because there IS NOT ENOUGH!!!

Vanice missed her wife.

Her beautiful bloodthirsty wife that pulled out her sword with the slightest provocation. Yes, it got her into trouble sometimes but it saved her more often than not.

And her damn demon dog. God, did she miss her old demon dog.

They had both died within the same week, leaving her alone with little to no friends. Vanice wasn’t a very good person, and to lose what little companions she had was nothing short of devastating.

And unlike the body of her demon dog that she had accidentally killed in the heat of battle, she could not for the life of her find Jenessa. Her Dark Elven Queen.

Not that she was actually royalty...Vanice still made it a point to shower her in stolen jewels though.

And her fucking Dawnbreaker sword!

The sword that had burned people far after the original attack, her first special weapon.

Now all she had was her shitty soul stealing Molag Bal mace, a shit ton of stolen gold, and a newly taken in demon dog that kept Vanice up at night with it's heavy breathing.

Not the same as Garmr, but no dog could ever replace that sweet hellhound.

Things were not going well for this Dragonborn.  
  
Vanice’s exasperation only continued when she had woken up in a ruin.  
  
Not an unusual occurrence, granted, but she heard the menacing growl of her demon dog and that usually didn't bode well.

Groaning, she threw an arm over her eyes. CuSith only did that when there was an enemy nearby. This would end in blood.  
  
The wood elf gripped her mace and used it to push herself into an upright position.

Sure enough there were a bunch of idiots holding swords and trying to stab her angry pooch, the worst thing you could do against a literal beast of hell. Vanice rubbed at her eyes, shielding them from the damaging sun.  
  
CuSith's growl turned into an enraged howl after the armored enemy cut at his side. With a wide jump he tore into them. "Aw, fuck, all right. Mother’s coming, sweetheart!" Swinging onto her feet, Vanice lunged into battle and narrowly missed bludgeoning a man who looked to be a guard of some sort.  
  
They didn’t look like the dawnguard who normally wore thick vampire resistant armor, nor did they look like the absolute trash city guard.  
  
"Shit, wait wait wait, CuSith, heel!" She commanded. CuSith howled in agitation but trotted back to her side chewing on some of the meat he had ripped off a man's leg. 

Vanice groaned as she watched more guards surround her, all hanging back in fear of her dog.

“Yes fine, ‘You have committed crimes against skyrim and her people', I know this song and dance! Listen, I’ll pay you a lump sum of gold if you leave me to my business, yeah? I really don’t want to have to deal with this and I’d like to get back home if you’d be so kind. You’d best take that deal if you know what's good for...you...oooh no.” Vanice trailed off as her hand lit up in a painful green crackle.

Fuck, how had she not noticed that! The pain was blinding! Oh damn. Her vision blurred around the edges until blackness fully settled and her head cracked against the stone floor.

* * *

Waking up in chains was Vanice's least favorite thing to do. Especially when she’s woken up by a kick to the side.

“Give me one reason why we shouldn’t kill you now.” a short haired woman asked.

Vanice swallowed around a painfully dry throat. Working up enough saliva to properly speak. A wheeze and cough came out instead. _Right, let's try that again._

“Firstly; lower your voice. Second; I have no idea who you are or what it is that's going on here, but kindly _fuck off._ ” She managed to say. She was so tired of people pullling these theatrics with her.

The short haired woman unsheathed her sword in one smooth movement, taking a threatening step towards Vanice. 

“Cassandra, don’t! We need information, not a dead prisoner!” said a voice from the side.

Vanice’s eyes darted to a woman hanging far back in the shadows. The only visible part of her underneath that hood was a deep frown and several strands of messy orange hair.

The wood elf inclined her head towards her, “Well, thank you for defending me and all, but I still have no idea what the hell is going on here so why don’t you _tell_ me what you want so I can be on my way? This isn’t the first damn time this has happened, with the brotherhood, are you? Cause’ if you are, I already told you I don’t want to join you're fucking assassins guild.”

The figure stepped forward, “You are a _prisoner,_ and you will tell us what happened at the Conclave or we will be forced to employ less than pleasant tactics.”

Vanice clicked her tongue as she realized her shackles did not allow her to reach the lock pick in the interior of her sleeve. Sighing, she decided to go along with this, “Well I’m going to need a little more information than that, sweetness, you see I’ve been to a lot a’ places so you’re going to have to be more specific than a “ _Conclave_ ””.

“Do not play these games with us, criminal, what do you have to do with the Breach!? Think carefully because your life depends on your next answer.” Vanice would like to see her try, she was not an easy thing to kil, especially when it was dark like this.

Now what’s this about a breach? A breach in security? Really, Vanice couldn’t care less about what these women were prattling on about. They were dead the moment she got free and found her belongings.

“How bout a deal? I tell you what I know about this “breach” if you tell me what happened to my dog?”

‘Cassandra’ tensed up, “That... _beast_ was yours? It killed 4 of my men and then ran off into the forest.” She spat.

Vanice sighed, “Yeah, he’s an angry boy, loyal though. Alright fine, I have no idea what the hell the breach is and that’s the truth, take it or leave it. But hey, I’d be happy to help you sort your crisis out if you let me go.” she said, putting on her best persuasive voice.

Cassandre sighed deeply before re-sheathing her sword. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. Every second that passes us by is time wasted while demons pour in from the fade.” She looked to Vanice, “That thing on your hand. Do you think you can stop this?” She asked.

Well she had no idea what the hell they wanted her to do, but she'd be open to trying if they let her leave this shithole. Plus...it would be a good opportunity to scope them all out and loot the place later.

* * *

Vanice clenched her fist when a peasant girl spat on her boot as she followed the short haired warrior woman. “The people have decided your guilt already. They need it.”

The hell they did! The only thing stopping her from body slamming this uppity peasant girl was the gaping green hole in the sky. That really took priority of punching a teenager in the face.

But she sure as hell would be back later to repay the insult.

Vanice winced as her hand lit up in green sparks and picked up the pace, “Ahhh! Shit shit shit, let’s go already! This BURNS like nothing else!” and it did. Something worse than fire and spider acid.

Picking up the pace, Vanice jogged along the path to the green flashing sky. Her approach however was stopped by the disgruntled short haired woman. “Stay close! I won’t have you running off when there are things to be done, so follow _BEHIND_!” Vanice was firmly pulled backwards by the woman.

Vanice glowered at the treatment. She could murder everyone here if she really set her mind to it, it would be easy if she had her fucking weapons and armor. She could take off into the mountains and come back with potions and new equipment.

She could burn this whole place into ash.

But that still wouldn't get this shitty mark off of her. If there's one thing Vanice had learned during her travels, it’s that fate liked to shove her into things that dictated her as the ‘Chosen one’.

It got old fast, especially since the people were still rude as shit whether she was prophecy sent or not. 

But back to scaling a mountain. The crackles were becoming more frequent and each time she could feel her skin split open even further. And to make matters worse, her regeneration wasn't kicking in because she was out in broad daylight.

Vanice winced “Gods, it hurts! How much further again?” Cassandra shot an annoyed look at her hand.

“About 45 minutes on foot if we hurry. Lets make good ground before that mark ends up killing you before it proves to be useful.”

Vanice gave her an exaggerated fond look “Oh thank goodness, you care. And here I was thinking that you only wanted me because of my mark." Her words were disregarded as they encountered another swarm of demons. God damn it, another patch of hellspawn. She'd really like her mace right about now! Instead, her eyes landed on a sword discarded by some wooden crates. Vanice made a wild grab for it with a demon hot on her trail, turning just in time to slice its head clean off. 

The fight was quick with Cassandra taking down the majority of them while Vanice focused on not getting hit without her armor on. It was like a murderous game of tag and Vanice was sneaking in whatever blows she could manage with this god-awful sword when Cassandra snapped at her.

“Drop your weapon!” She shouted. Vanice levelled her with a glare. _“Really_ now? The world is falling to shit, demons are _literally_ pouring from the sky and you're worried about me having a shitty iron sword? Fine, take it! It does about as much damage as a fork against a dragon, you'd be doing me a favor!” Vanice spat, throwing it to the ground. It fell with a soft plop onto the snow and laid there sadly.

Cassandra sighed and ran a hand over her face. “...It may prove useful for you to have a weapon to defend yourself, I can't keep tabs on you the whole way and the trek will be perilous.” 

Vanice could defend herself just fine with no weapons, but that was something frowned upon in most circles. She could admit, her transformed state was nothing pretty to look at.

Nobody likes vampires.

"Keep up!" Cassandra shouted, marching ahead to slice a demon out of her path. Vanice sighed and picked up her new sword before following. Hopefully they'd arrive there soon and finish this quickly.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanice is tired and confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna be following the vague outline of how my first dragon age playthrough went. Would you believe I didnt know about that bing thing to find items until halfway through the game? Like, when that Ball and assasination happened. This, you see, caused a lot of problems and unfinished quests lol

Vanice couldn’t believe her eyes as they got closer and closer to the rift and not for the reason most would expect. Was that a fucking dwarf!? Above ground and carrying a crossbow!? They were extinct; she was sure of it. No one had seen one since 1E 700 when they all had been wiped out. At least from what she had heard.

No time to be shocked, there was a giant hole burning through her palm! “Finally!” A bald elf shouted, “Quickly, before more come through!” He reached for her hand and held it towards the swirling mass of green. Her knees buckled under her as the burning pain rose to the heat of an exploding star. Vanice could only grit her teeth and tremble. She felt like her soul was being ripped out from her hand.

Amazingly, the opening started to close as she was forced to either fight the energy into submission, or crumble under it.

As soon as the rift snapped into nothing, she fell face first onto the ground. God, she needed some blood. “If I don’t get any gold from this, I’m maiming someone.” She said, rolling onto her side to stand up. That was awful, but at least it was over. “Alright, that’s enough of that, where’s my stuff?” She needed a healing potion like mad, and her mana was shit at the moment so she couldn’t heal herself. Maybe this mark was draining it.

Cassandra huffed and gripped her hand to heft her up. “Your job is far from done, we’ve yet to reach the main breach at the conclave.”

Vanice groaned, “Of course...wait a damn minute! To think I’d almost forgotten.” Vanice whipped around and her eyes soon fell on the dwarf. A long-forgotten sense of wonderment rose up and bubbled in her chest. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” She breathed reverently. Truly this was a dwarf, no deformities to signify otherwise. There had been those trying to pass themselves off as members of the extinct race, but their physical or mental state always betrayed them. Either a hunchback or a man whose lineage had kept their skull child sized, and in turn, their mind. A small body did not equal a dwarf.

This, however, she could feel it, smell it. A familiar magic in the air, one synced with the earth. “Just where did you come from?” She asked.

The dwarf laughed, “You flatter me. The name’s Varric Tethras, and you’ve stirred up quite a bit of fuss.” Oh lords above, what was her life!?

A hand touched her shoulder, “If I may?” The bald elf took her hand and examined the green slit, frowning. “I had theorized the breach gave you this mark and that it may help in closing it, but I did not predict the effect it would have on you. I apologize for causing you pain, as necessary as it was.”

Vanice smiled, “A polite soul! The rarest thing to find in Skyrim, what a treasure you are. Usually when I meet a stranger they either want to rob me or tell me to fuck off to my own land.” She said wistfully. Awful times.

The bald elf showed only momentary confusion before continuing on. “That sounds...unpleasant. I believe introductions are in order? My name is Solas, what might yours be?” He asked.

“Ah, Vanice Bowregard the III, pleasure to meet you-“ another bout of green electricity flared up and her knees nearly gave out, “No time for chit chat, time to go!” Vanice said louder than she meant too. Even to her own ears she sounded strained.

Solas regarded her hand in an oddly judgmental way but she chalked that up to her having a miniature death portal on her palm. No one was obligated to like those.

Their next stop was at what appeared to be a makeshift camp on a bridge. Vanice and the rag-tag group made it there with her leading at a brisk pace. Fuck, fuck _fuck!_ It burned! 

There was another green monstrosity out in front of the gate, too. The second time around wasn’t nearly as bad as the first, but it still left her drained after having to close it. Everyone was doing their best to keep the demons off her back while she closed it, but she was steadily accumulating wounds. If she could get a good 10 minutes in a dimly lit room, she’d be fine, but at the moment there wasn’t a very good excuse for hiding away while there was a rift in the sky.

It was fine, this would be over soon. Hopefully.

When they finally opened up the gate a man in robes stood on the bridge glaring down at what appeared to be a map. He looked up when she approached and that glare turned into something even nastier. “Guards! Arrest this woman, they are responsible for this whole _mess_. She should be in the deepest cell of a dungeon already, Seeker Cassandra, what is the meaning of this?” The old man stalked over from behind the table.

Vanice groaned loudly, already tuning what he was saying out. Instead she poked at her little green friend on the palm of her hand. She quickly stopped that however when her finger went too far in and it crackled wildly. 

“What about you? What do you think would be the best route?” the short haired woman asked her. Oh no. Quickly, she recapped the conversation she had been subconsciously listening to. She barely caught the last couple of words. “Ah, mountains. I’ve climbed up so many mountains, it’ll probably be a breeze.” It was not a breeze. Seeing as they stopped and fought whatever no name demon they could on the way there. It was not only tiresome, it was draining all the stamina she had left in her body! Vanice was damn near stumbling by the time they made it to the conclave entrance.

“5 minutes!” she called out, raising one arm in defeat. She got plenty of looks, but she shook her head, plopping down onto the snow next to a freshly dead body. Blood was probably still warm too. Sweet temptation, but she couldn’t risk being exposed as a bloodsucker at the moment. They had the same vibe as the Dawnguard and she wasn’t about to get her ass kicked while she was still mainly defenseless and weakened.

After that 5 minute break of just breathing in the cold air, she got up and marched forward. She better get some blood after this.

The place was filled with ash and burned bodies. The further they went in, the worse Vanice felt. Eventually the feeling came to a peak when she spotted red crystals sprouting from the walls and floors. 

What in Godric’s name? She pointed violently at it, scowling. “Is that what’s been making my head pound!? It’s like someone took a hammer to my brain everytime I even look at it” Cassandra walked past her and scoffed in disgust. “Red Lyrium. Quite a bit if it also. Whatever you do, don’t touch it.”

Vanice raised her hands and took a step back. She wouldn’t touch it if you paid her! The chaotic corruption was already eating away at the edges of her mind. They continued on and soon were listening to the uncanny scene coming from the rift. It only took a couple of seconds watching her vision self crouched low to the ground to realize she was probably fucked. She didn’t remember any of this, and odds were, they were about to catch her stealing. 

Low and behold, while being a nosey bystander to a sacrifice, she snatched up an important looking orb when no one was looking and it exploded into the next scene of her running with the old woman. Vanice prayed to whatever deity out there that she didn’t trip the lady to get away from the giant beast chasing them. That would be very awkward. Cassandra was already glaring pretty hard at her. 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the woman sacrificed herself so that Vanice could get away and that was that. Angry words were shouted at her, and then a giant demon proceeded to re-size their orifices for about half an hour while she had to dodge and close the rift at the same time.

After the battle, Vanice laid face down on the snow and promptly went to sleep...passed out. It didn’t matter. When she woke up, it was to the scent of a young girl. Alone.

Immediately she snapped her head towards the source. Vanice was in bed. Strange. “Hello there.” She spoke, voice barely a whisper. Still, the girl heard her and jumped. “Oh, dear! I’m very sorry to disturb you, but they...you’ve been requested in the war room.” She stumbled over her words.

Vanice placed her hand under her own chin and looked the girl up and down. “War room you say? Not very interested in that. Would you mind stepping over here, sweetheart?” Vanice purred, hand extended. Whether it was her tone or her eyes, the girl simply squeaked out some apologies and got the hell out of there.

Vanice hissed in frustration and banged her head against the bed. She was so fucking hungry! At least she was healed up now, mana and all. The mark on her hand was almost a subdued feeling now. Sighing, she pulled herself out of bed. 

Her hair was a right mess of knots, but she couldn’t do anything about that now. She’d go to the war room, but first things first! She poked her head out of the cabin and whistled loudly. It only took a few moments before a commotion was heard from afar of screams and shouts. CuSith was trotting full speed towards her and headbutted her leg once he finally made it up close. “Good boy!” She praised, leaning down to stroke his hairless black skin.

Feeling significantly more confident, she clicked her tongue at him to follow. She didn’t know where the war room was, but she would find her way eventually. She always did.

* * *

Vanice was in a situation.

She was not where she was supposed to be and while this had happened before; it had been a warped reality of filth and decay, not a completely different continent. She’d snuck off in the night once they had started the whole “Inquisition” talk and was completely lost. She hadn’t been lost like this since she first arrived in skyrim.

Her map was all wrong, and the plants were completely different, and she was _lost._ Vanice had sulkily returned to the chantry and sat on the roof contemplating her situation. She’d seen the maps in the war room, it looked like complete nonsense at the time, but apparently it was fairly accurate. Her belongings had been returned to her and now they were introducing her to army captain’s and ambassadors like she had any business being there. 

She’d done this whole dance before, and while there were a few extra steps, it was usually always the same. Talk to this person who will lead you to something, which will lead you to another thing. Unfortunately, she was in the awkward position of being in the company of people who actually cared about her little habits. Cassandra’s snippy _“Do you have to loot every dead body you come across?” “What are you doing, we are in the middle of battle, stop eating!” “Do you ever sleep?_ “ Not by choice, no. She’d once gone months without sleeping, and the moment she did, she was whisked away to a cabin in the middle of nowhere and forced to kill someone. 

Vanice _hated_ being forced to do things. She’d joined the thieves guild because she thought it would be fun, but being forced to join a stupid little killing organization? Maybe if they had just _asked…_

She tried to kill the assassin woman on top of dresser, and when that failed, she murdered the rude old lady and never once reached out to the Brotherhood afterwards.

So no, she didn’t sleep.

Not with golden boy Templar looking at her suspiciously all the time. “Those are quite sharp teeth you have there…” he trailed off once. Vanice shrugs it off when she can, but she’s fairly certain Templars were just a smaller branch of Dawn guards. He really wanted to kill her death hound for some reason and kept giving the excuse of “It’s demonic!”

No shit.

Of course it was demonic, but that seemed to be even more of a trigger word here than in skyrim. Such fear seemed excessive seeing as Vanice was being _exceptionally_ good about not stealing from here...as much as she usually would. She really hated diplomacy with the snotty people of orlais. 

And what the fuck was with the arrow and red scarves. She had looked at one, found another and just...she could now figure out what she was supposed to be doing!? She left Orlais confused and still thinking about it for weeks after.

Parading around that racist shit hole was not fun, and while she made a ton from pickpocketing, she was tired of rude people yelling at her dog.

So when the decision came down between siding with the snooty mages or the templars, she chose the templars. She still didn’t like them, but from what she knew, they didn’t have any vamp precautions. Actually, it seemed like there were no other vampires like her at _all_. It made it easier to quietly drink from chantry residents at night when no one questioned their sore necks in the morning.

The Iron Bull kept giving her looks though.

But yes, the Templars. And the stupid demon she could smell from a mile away. Red lyrium, the rot of decaying skin, and smell demonic energy was rife within the air, and as soon as she laid eyes on them, she was nudging Cassandra in her side. Cassandra sent her an annoyed look and tightened her lips in a way that Vanice had learned was “ _Shut up and behave”_

Vanice made an unhappy sound. “I know you want me to respectful and such but this whole place _stinks_ of that red lyrium shit that was all over the Conclave. It’s making my head pound and I’m wondering if you realized that half the people here smell like they’ve been rolling around in it!”

Cassandra clicked her tongue and looked around. “Smell? I wasn’t aware lyrium had a scent to it.” She said disbelievingly.

Vanice was validated later the moment they stabbed one of their own. The _“I told you so”_ was on the tip of her tongue but died out at the roar of CuSith jumping over the table to chomp his jaws into the attackers. They had a fight to win, she could gloat later.

And she swore she would.

Unfortunately this would be forgotten later, as an all-consuming infactuation was on its way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vanice still has no idea yet how she ended up here to even steal the orb lol. Once again, see a mistake (Even lore-wise), point it out and save a life!!! Thank you for reading ❤


End file.
